Hillary Clinton: Gun culture ‘way out of balance’

By KEN THOMAS
Associated Press

Published: May 6, 2014;Last modified: May 6, 2014 10:38AM

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton says the nation’s gun culture has gotten “way out of balance.” She tells a mental health conference that the U.S. needs to rein in the notion that “anybody can have a gun, anywhere, anytime.”

The potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate says the idea that anyone can have a gun is not in the “best interest of the vast majority of people.” But she says that doesn’t conflict with the rights of people to own firearms.

Clinton spoke Tuesday at the National Council for Behavioral Health conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

The Democratic-controlled Senate voted against legislation pushed by President Barack Obama last year that would have expanded background checks for firearm purchases to gun shows and online sales. The legislation came in the aftermath of the deadly Sandy Hook elementary school shootings in Connecticut.